I've got no regrets: Harris

Ryan Harris says he has "no regrets" about his intense physical preparation for the Ashes series that was curtailed by injury which forced his immediate retirement from all forms of the game.

Harris requires surgery on his troublesome left knee and the lengthy rehabilitation period required saw him make the difficult decision to hang up his Baggy Green cap. However, he will quickly slip into a coaching role and has been lined up for several engagements over the summer.

Harris announced his shock retirement ahead of the first Ashes Test after "jagging" his knee bowling in Australia's warm-up match in Kent. Scans revealed a cracked tibia bone, caused by the rubbing of bone on bone in the joint, and he requires a bone graft to fix it.

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Cricket Australia's Executive General Manager, Team Performance, Pat Howard, this week shouldered the blame for the injury to Harris, who had been confined to the gym and training paddock in a bid to be in peak physical condition for the Ashes.

"It is my fault that things did not work with Ryan Harris and he did not get himself up," Howard told News Corp.

"I put the (fitness and rehab) program in with the guys to take him out of Sheffield Shield cricket to get him ready. I am certainly going to review that decision."

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However, Harris said he stood by the plan which also saw him skip the two-Test West Indies tour to stay home for the birth of his son, Carter James.

"We all agreed to it – the medical staff, the captain, coach – the plan was to get to England," Harris wrote in a Fairfax column.

"Everything was going to plan until that day in Kent when it fell apart. I was the fittest I'd been, if not ever then for a long, long time.

"I did everything asked of me in the gym and felt unbelievable.

"If you could replace knees and get back to 100 per cent fitness I'd be laughing because the rest of me is going really well. I've got no regrets at all."

Harris will slip immediately into a coaching role. He will take the reins of the Australia Under-17 team, which will play in December's Under-19 National Championships.

He will also have an assistant coaching role with the Prime Minister's XI and CA XI teams, and is also expected to travel to the U19 World Cup in Bangladesh next year to work with U19 head coach Graeme Hick.